


if love's elastic

by starvels (dinosaur)



Series: continuing drabblefest [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Character Study, Developing Relationship, F/M, M/M, Multi, Phone Calls & Telephones, Transhumanism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-06 16:58:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16391603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dinosaur/pseuds/starvels
Summary: There's galaxies of space between the two of them right now, but somehow, Rhodey still feels as close as ever.





	if love's elastic

**Author's Note:**

> 5/31 oktober drabblefest: clumsy comfort. 
> 
> title from sleeping at last's homesick.

 

 

It’s 3 AM when Rhodey calls, but Tony figures that’s just par for course in Best Friend Land.

Tony’s never had a best friend before.

He answers through Jarvis, the key-combo feeling stiff and unnatural, but the voice commands aren’t ready quite yet.  

“Hey, busybear,” Tony says, light and careful.

A long pause, then, “Hey.”

Quiet, stilted.

Something lost between them, some bit of Rhodey that’s aching and harsh and coiling under his skin, that way he gets, eyes scrunched but back iron hard, holding himself up.

Tony knows this Rhodey.

Just like he knows it wouldn’t be helpful to suggest he teleport out or fly Rhodey back here, as a business trip or otherwise. To say,

_Hey I know you just shipped off and I’m here on Earth, and we’re not a hallmark movie but I really, really miss you and I’m not sure I know how to live in a bedroom alone anymore and god, I am so fucking scared for you I built three force field prototypes last week and then got high enough I couldn’t think –_

Isn’t helpful.

“Sucks,” he says, instead, breathing into the headset like a sigh.

“Really sucks,” Rhodey says.

Tired, he sounds like Final’s Week, all four-too-many red pills and listing over Tony’s shoulders.

“What,” Tony swallows, “What would help?”

“Dunno,” Rhodey says dully.

“I’m doing something illegal right now?” Tony offers.

A short laugh.

“You _are_ illegal.”

Tony looks down at his glowing chest, the thin skinthetic sewn over his metal ribs and arm. Body built half of code and half of hoping, hellish heart.

“True,” he looks back up like Rhodey can see him, and smiles softly, “Never seemed to bother you before, Ensign.”

A longer laugh, quieter, louder like Rhodey’s pressing closer to the mic.

“Doesn’t.”

“Glad.”

So, so, so glad. Best friend, honeybear, _more_. Tony’s biting his lip now, itchy with warmth.

A different silence, easier.

“Jarvis is almost full systems.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, just some more logic tests. Finding the right vocal modulation.”

“Do not make it British.”

“Would I do that?”

Rhodey scoffs.

Tony taps a laser against his leg, grinning.

“Could,” Rhodey starts, cuts off abruptly.

Biting his lip, tony waits out 3 full seconds before asking, “Everything ‘kay?”

Another five seconds, some sort of mechanic shuffling, then, “Yeah, just. You know.”

Tony does. They’re way out of designated space right now. Too many ‘stroids, too many non-carbon species to understand. Not that Tony’s _supposed_ to know that, but.

They both know, how he is.

Another silence, less easy.

“Could make it,” Rhodey finally says again, “my voice.”

Tony blinks at his messy holograms for a moment, imagining that – Rhodey’s voice for his AI. Would it get his way of saying Tones, his snippy _you’re wrong Tony_ corrections that Tony craves. The warmth? God, Tony wants that so fiercely for a moment. Dangerous, it would be – what all he could make the AI say – it’s its own creation but Tony’s admin user and –

Rhodey’s quiet, letting him process for a moment, before, he whispers, syrup sweet now, “Couldn’t have yourself getting even more hot under the collar from your own creation, hm?”

Tony flushes, “Rhodey,” he says, lower, slower.

“Mm,” A happy hum.

Tony never wins against Rhodey in anything, because he can’t deny him anything. But still, “I can’t make it have your voice.” He sounds plaintive.

“Well.”

“Rhod _ey_.”

“It’s illegal. Doesn’t exist. Can do anything with it you want,” It’s not so much a declaration as it is a probe, testing the nebulae of Tony’s intent.  Searching for solid elements.

 _Am I that for you,_ Tony wants to ask. Is suddenly terrified by the thought, desperate to do good, to be what Rhodey needs. To be this late not-night reassurance.

“It’s still gonna,” Tony stumbles a bit, “be an entity of its own. Don’t want it to be too much mine.”

“Mm,” a different hum, less happy but more content. “S’okay. Got some other entities that are yours by choice anyways.”

Tony inhales sharp enough to be a hiss. It makes him lightheaded. Or maybe that’s just Rhodey, always just Rhodey. Fuck, he should have slept any time in the last 48 hours. He berates his past self for not knowing Rhodey was going to call – set him head upon feet.

 _I want that_ , Tony thinks harshly, achingly, _I want to be each other’s. Whatever that means. However that is._

He’s not sure how to say anything back without that spilling out of his mouth.

“I – “ he tries, then trails off.

“You can make an entities titties joke, if you want,” Rhodey says, soft and just like chuckling while bumping into Tony’s side.

It slots Tony back into himself just as easily as it did back in Academy.

“I kiss your mother with this mouth,” Tony says, throwing a hand on his chest, even though Rhodey can’t see it.

His heart beat is still fast, his cheeks still warm.

Rhodey can’t see that either.

He laughs, though. Rocky landslide of their joined past and future and present tumbling down the line to Tony’s ear. “You do, Tones.”

Finally, a silence just them, normal and like a pause between breaths.

“Missed you, is all,” Rhodey says.

“Miss you, always,” Tony says back, hoarse and at the end of his heartstring wits.

“I know,” Rhodey whispers.

His voice is farther away somehow. Connection steady but drawing tense like the end of a rope.

“You have to go?” Tony manages to ask, instead of _Why did you have to go?_

“Yeah,” Rhodey says shortly. Not unkind.

“Okay,” Tony says, absolutely not moping. Rhodey’s the one that _called him._

A smile somehow peeks through Rhodey’s voice, “Liar.”

“Well,” Tony says, stops. Doesn’t have much else to offer.

“I’ll call later, soon, alright?”

“Okay,” Tony says again, and doesn’t get called out on it.

Rhodey signs off.

For too long, Tony stares at the holo blinking _Signal Disengaged._ He didn’t figure out what it was Rhodey called for, he realizes. Tony frowns down at his worktable. There’s no sense calling back, but Tony still gets halfway through the address before pausing and deleting it.

 _I’m staying here,_ he consoles himself. _Rhodey knows how to call me, if he needs._

There’s a sound behind him.

He whirls, only to be faced with an empty lab and movement at the glass.

Potts is opening the door.

Tony eases back into his egg chair.

Potts is safe. Human. Hired by his own hand, not one of the investors, or worse.  She’s brilliant; coder, HR savant, handy with a handgun, great taste in Charlie Brown socks on lazy Saturdays up with the stocks. Penny-copper not-academy new.

“Everything alright?” she asks, one hand on the door like she’s wary of stepping into the lab.

“Nah,” Tony says, too longing to pretend.

She hesitates.

“Nothing for Stark Industries to do,” Tony says, looking down and picking at a mess of a motherboard on his table.

She’s quiet, contemplative. “Anything for Stark, Individual, to do?”

Tony laughs and it only hurts a little bit. He looks up and smiles at her. “Just this, Potts, just this.”

She’s got a good eyebrow slant too, a good lean that says, _You’re wrong, Tony._

It probably says something about him, that these are the kind of people he’s drawn to.

Then again, he thinks, watching Potts hit the code to bring the lab lights on absently, like reflex after just two weeks, she had a trillion job offers – any moon she wanted in the system. And she chose this. Chose here. Is here at 3 AM checking on Tony, somehow, because she’s practically moved in to one of the spare rooms, without asking permission.  

Open hours availability on an application. No family obligations _,_ Tony remembers. Two beds in two academy rooms, shoved into the same shared living space, Tony remembers.

So maybe it’s less about Tony, the individual, and more about Them and the choosing.

He’ll introduce the two of them, soon, he thinks. Bright Rhodey-red and shiny copper-Potts. They’ve got atoms in common.

The longing burns blue in his hot, metal heart.

“What do you know about illegal AI design?” he asks, bright and spinning the laser in his hands.

Potts hesitates just for a second.

“What’s your security like down here?” She asks, thumbing off her net uplink implant with one hand.

A grin stretches across Tony’s face. “Adaptive Rhodes design.”

“Hmm,” Potts hums, eyebrows smoothing out. “Give me the brief.”

Tony gives her the chair and hops up on the table.

“So,” he starts.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!
> 
> tumblr post for this fic [[here]](https://starvels.tumblr.com/post/179365155786/). & if you're interested in winning some of my words for some real good causes, i'm participating in marvel trumps hate [[here]](https://mthofferings.tumblr.com/post/179230540506/)! <33


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